Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2015

Sales and Use Tax Annotations

465.0000 REMEDIES OF TAXPAYERS

Annotation 465.0217

(b) REFUND.

(2) Claims for Refund

465.0217 Timeliness. A taxpayer filed a claim for refund on May 1, 1992, for the period January 1, 1987, through June 30, 1989, with respect to purchases it made from a supplier. In August 1992, the Board's staff acknowledged having received the taxpayer's claim. In September 1994, the Board's staff advised the taxpayer that the Board was not accepting the claim as valid since the taxpayer was not the proper party to file the claim. The supplier or seller was the proper party since it paid the sales tax to the state.

Although it is unfortunate that there was a delay of over two years in notifying the taxpayer that the claim was not being accepted, it does not appear that any rights were impaired due to that delay. Even if the taxpayer had been advised immediately that it was not the proper party to file the claim, it would have already been too late for the seller to file a claim for refund. The statute of limitation period under section 6902 had passed for all periods except the second quarter 1989. Also, the alleged overpayments were all made for periods prior to the second quarter of 1989. Under the facts, it was already too late for the seller to file a claim for refund for any of the taxes at issue. Therefore, the taxpayer cannot be regarded as being harmed by the Board's delay and no "equitable" concerns need be considered. 3/23/95.